Crossley Heath Grammar School

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The Crossley Heath School is a grammar school located in Savile Park, Halifax, United Kingdom. In 1857, it was founded as an orphanage by Frank and John Crossley, of Dean Clough Mills through capital of 56,000 UKP and a further endowment of 50,000 UKP. In 1887, after a gift of 50,000 UKP from Thomas Porter a Manchester yarn merchant, the orphanage was extended to include schooling. Over time, the need for an orphanage decreased and the school became a grammar school. The building was designed by John Hogg a local architect.

A Royal Charter of January 31, 1887, named the institution The Crossley and Porter Orphan Home and School. In 1919 the school was given royal permission to admit day pupils.

It is now also a specialist language college in Halifax. Formed by the merger of Heath Grammar School and Crossley and Porter School in 1985, it also has permission to use Savile Park moor for teaching and lunchtime use.

In the last year the school has had a new technology block built, along with a new language wing to go with the status of language college. The school now teaches after school classes for members of the public of any age and pupils to learn languages from French, Spanish and German to Mandarin Chinese. Italian is also offered as a lunchtime club and numerous other languages ranging from Arabic to Japanese are run as after school clubs for adults and students alike.

The school has also been spending money on abroad trips to places such as a recent music tour to Barcelona, an excursion to the Rhineland region of Germany for year 8 pupils and an exchange trip to Beijing in the Autumn of 2005. Also there is a residential trip to Castleton in Year 8.

The school has a flourishing house system with all students belonging to one of the four houses; Porter and Savile (These two came from the Crossley and Porter School), Kings and Queens (These two came from Heath Grammar School). There are competitions between the houses each year, including the school Sports Day, Swimming Gala, House Music Competition and House Drama Competitions. There is also fierce competition between forms in each year, both in academic targets and in charity work. The school is extremely supportive of many charities and forms will often compete to raise the most money for charity events; Comic Relief, Jeans for Genes and Children in Need are just some of the charities supported on a regular basis.

The school also has many successful sports teams, many of whom win competitions on a local and national scale. These include the athletics team, the cross country team, hockey teams, football teams and rugby teams.

The Crossley Heath School is a mixed, foundation grammar school with 984 pupils and students on roll aged from 11 to 18. There are 214 students in the sixth form. The school does not yet have a complete set of figures indicating the number of pupils from minority ethnic groups and for those who speak English as an additional language for the current year, as a small number of forms containing this information have not been returned by parents.

There are usually around six percent in each group, the largest minority ethnic group being Pakistani, and with no pupils at early stages of language acquisition. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs, and the proportion with statements, is well below the national average. Those with the most severe need have physical disabilities. The proportion of pupils known to be entitled to free school meals is well below the national average. The area surrounding the school is relatively prosperous, but the school draws from a very wide geographical area and some pupils travel long distances to school. Pupils are selected for admission based on their performance in tests administered by the school, and the attainment of pupils on entry to the school in Year 7 is very high. The attainment of students on entry to the sixth form is well above average.

1 Alumni
2 The Crossley Heath School Book
3 External links
4 Information about the School
5 References

[edit] Alumni

Although various famous people were pupils at either Crossley and Porter or Heath, there have been few notable Crossley Heathens since the schools' amalgamation in 1985. However, famous former pupils include:

James Naylor (1985-1992) - Newcastle Falcons and England B Rugby Union player

Isobel Birtwhistle (1985 - 1992) - TV / Film Actress

[edit] The Crossley Heath School Book

A book was published by Rose Taylor, Andrew Kafel and Russell Smith that covers a largely photographic history of the school. Images cover the school's large basement, the orphanage and many of the photos kept in the Crossley Heath Archives.